Republicans and Hate Crimes

I have a lot of personal experience with hate crimes in Oklahoma. My first brush with them was experiencing death threats delivered via my answering machine, back in the early 1990's. I had my window shot out with a pellet gun, and glass bottles broken all over my drive way. My "crime" was I had somehow made it onto a right wing hate list for being an officer for the "United Methodist for Lesbian and Gay Concerns" and I dared to organize a Thanksgiving celebration.

The final straw, for me, was when my partner, at the time, Tony Orr and I were beaten in 1997. We had left a night club, and I was attempting to use my ATM card. My partner had walked ahead of me and was going to circle back to the night club, and I was going to "catch up" with him. After getting my money, I walked around the side of the building to see three guys yelling gay epithets and slurs, with Tony on the ground, while using his head as a soccer ball. I ran and jumped on their backs, and then I became the target of their fury. I will always credit a woman who came on the scene and screamed she was calling the police for saving my life.

It wasn't just the beating that infuriated me, but it was my perception the guys were simply being let off the hook because it was just an attack against a "couple of fags." Tony had been a journalist for the Tulsa World and called some contacts there so we could interview with them and try to make a difference. The result was this article.

The Human Rights Campaign got involved and they hosted us in Washington, DC to testify before the House Judiciary Committee regarding Hate Crimes violence. I will never forget lobbying congress, after Tony's testimony, and asking some Republicans why they would not support a federal Hate Crimes law when they had just recently overwhelmingly supported the Church Arson Act of 1996.

I argued the only difference between the two was one law protected inanimate houses of worship while the other protected actual people. I also argued the point the federal government should be able to step in and give their assistance when local law enforcement, for whatever reason, fails to provide justice. The typical response, from Republican congressmen, was dead silence or a deer in headlights look.

It is my belief there is no excuse to not pass a federal Hate Crimes law for the LGBT community. If the congress can pass federal protections for churches, to send a message the burning of churches will not be tolerated, they can pass laws to protect living breathing human beings.